Failure Stories from Philanthropy: Kataly’s Reflections on How We’ve Failed, and What We’ve Learned

Failure often happens in secret. But what is possible when we share our failures in public?

This year, Kataly committed to answering that question by offering reflections on our failures, mistakes, and unlearnings in this blog series.

Our goal with this series was to practice radical honesty and transparency, hold ourselves accountable to moving differently going forward, and share lessons that others in philanthropy can learn from.

Below are links to all of the pieces in our failure series:

• Failing with integrity and defeating the shame spiral— Zaineb Mohammed, Director of Communications
• What happens when our commitments to grantee partners come up against the bounds of the systems we operate in?—Restorative Economies Fund team
• Participatory grantmaking: how we failed, and what we’re learning— Environmental Justice Resourcing Collective team at Kataly
• The impact of unclear communication and how to lean into abundance rather than scarcity— Mindfulness and Healing Justice team
• Unlearning perfection: Reflections on failure and trust— Ray Holgado, Director of Knowledge and Grants
• Contending with power, self-preservation, and vulnerability—Danielle Royston-Lopez, Grants and Program Associate
• Behind the scenes with operations: the gifts of lessons and failures—Joleen Ruffin, Chief Finance Officer, and Dana Mason, Operations and Projects Manager
• Who gets to fail? Reflections from Kataly’s board— Regan Pritzker and Chris Olin, Board Members
• What happens when we fail to embrace our power? — Nwamaka Agbo, CEO of the Kataly Foundation, and Managing Director of the Restorative Economies Fund

We hope that this series was a useful offering to the field, and a window into how and why funders fail.

We are eager to hear what topics and ideas you’d like us to explore next. Please share a question or suggestion for us in the comments, on social media (LinkedIn or Twitter), or via email: communications@kataly.org.

Thanks for reading.